Record of the Sol/Void War
Jan. 23rd, 2013 02:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
empress_without_a_throneJust notes and stuff for the backstory of SolSavior. Please note that this isn't going to be relevant in the game at all aside from the fact that yes, there were some fights in the distant past and they covered like every fucking trope under the book.
Season 1: SolFighter (two-man, single robot) vs. the Kingdom of Darkness (chess themed, led by Queen Maliasma)
The Great Black Void initially did not expect for much resistance from humanity. Its first creations, the Kingdom of Darkness were many, any one of them more than a match for countless conventional forces. However, as their first soldier, 7th of Bishop, attacked Japan, a powerful machine rose up to stop it. Powered by the anathema of Void beings, Sol energy, it fought back and killed 7th of Bishop with ease. Humanity had been ready for the Great Black Void, Project Sol had been ready. At their disposal was the might SolFighter, a machine piloted by two people working in synch, and able to easily dispose of the Kingdom's lesser riff-raff.
In spite of this, the early days of the war were marked by a lot of unusual craziness. Neither side was all that familiar with the other, and SolFighter and the Kingdom's forces typically adjusting and re-adjusting strategies all the while. The Kingdom also frequently fielded upwards of six machines at once in an attempt to best SolFighter. Project Sol also had to work to maintain as much secrecy about their actions as possible, lest the world realize that the Illuminati were the group's backers. Additionally, in between two of SolFighter's battles, one of its pilots ended up in a car accident, throwing the entire organization into chaos about what could be done. A substitute copilot was found before long and SolFighter was back in action, but it still had been a very close call.
Steadily, Project Sol and SolFighter made ground against the Kingdrom of Darkness, and roughly a year after the first battle, Project Sol was able to locate the Kingdom's secret base in outer space. SolFighter charged in to take the fight to the Kingdom and finish off the Void's schemes, and for a while things seemed peachy... but as it was finishing off the mighty Queen Maliasma, SolFighter was suddenly blindsided. More enemies? New members of the Kingdom?
No, explained one of them. Rather, they were members of the Void's second batch. Every year, as the Earth's orbit took it close to the Void, the Void was capable of creating an imitation of human society, another chance for it to use to take control of the planet. The Kingdom of Darkness was finished, yes, but the Shadow Alliance was just getting started.
Truly, all seemed lost, until suddenly another Sol machine joined the fray! Bigger, stronger, and able to overpower the Shadow Alliance members, at the helm were two more pilots, including the one that had previously been benched due to his injury! The Great Black Void wasn't the only one that had been planning ahead, and Project Sol was strapped in for the long haul...
Season 2: SolVanguard (two-man, two-mech combiner) vs. the Shadow Alliance (natural disaster themed, led by Lord Nova)
Having clashed during the final phases of the previous phase of the war, SolVanguard and the Shadow Alliance were no strangers to each other. Both sides were also starting to settle into a general feel as well, the Alliance having a little more consistent MO than the Kingdom of Darkness and Project Sol now more experienced with thwarting the forces of the Void.
The Shadow Alliance, befitting its natural disaster theme, was particularly prone to large-scale environmental catastrophes. Nearly all life of any note on Earth was a Sol being, so it all had to go, right? Naturally, SolVanguard rose to stop them at every turn, but all this fighting in such a way got very conspicuous, and some people got to thinking about just what the deal was with Project Sol...
Nevertheless, SolVanguard continued to save the day, beating back the most prominent members of the alliance, including Baron Flood, Count Wildfire, and even Grand Marshall Fallout. But just as the group was starting to grow complacent, that was when the Alliance pulled out all the stops. There were far greater catastrophes the Universe was capable of than simply what could happen to a single planet, and during a rather routine intervention, SolVanguard was suddenly blindsided by a new, far stronger enemy: Shogun Dairyusei. Just as all seemed lost, SolFighter returned to save the day, repaired, upgraded, and able to fight alongside its sibling machine. The original SolFighter team was reunited once more, even if they were in separate machines and had new partners now, and the two machines fought alongside each other for the remainder of the second phase, ultimately striking down Lord Nova together.
Season 3: SolShinobi & SolKunoichi (each have a single pilot) vs. the Ebon Corsairs (pirate themed, led by Admiral Blackheart)
Season 4: SolGladiator (three-man, three-mech combiner) vs. Midnight Army (tarot themed, led by Terra Complete)
Though SolShinobi and SolKunoichi proved the viability of solo-piloted machines, Project Sol still opted to return to the multi-man machines they'd made previously and would continue to field in later years. However, their latest creation, SolAres, was somewhat similar to the ninja machines in that each component could fight to an extent on its own and also separate at will to evade attacks. Three pilots were quickly found with sufficient aptitude for the machines, and the fourth phase of the war was on.
There were two glaring problems, though. First, although the pilots were capable with their own individual fighters, they had terrible teamwork. Second, the Midnight Army's attacks were seemingly random and had no common thread. With an enemy they couldn't get a handle on, and a team of pilots that Project Sol could not get to live up to their full potential, the war took a turn for the worst. Victories were still commonplace, but all too often the Army achieved whatever their goal had been, be it acquiring wealth, sending a city into absolute chaos, or destroying a space station. The army's greatest victory, however, was managing a fatal strike on members of the Illuminati, killing them and thus depriving Project Sol of its primary source of funding.
Season 5: SolProtector (five-man, five-mech combiner) vs. the Black Coven (occult themed, led by Hecate)
With the Sol/Void war entering its fifth year and with all the previous pilots taking their hard-fought and well-deserve leave from Project Sol, humanity needed a new group of defenders to stand up against the Void's next batch of evildoers! Heroes through and through to follow up on the past victories and kick serious ass, maybe even end the war for realsies!
And Project Sol got five amazing, upstanding, damn-near knightly men and women who were ready to do their part against the evils of the Great Black Void and the Black Coven. SolProctector's pilots went above and beyond being just the first, last, and only line of defense needed against the Coven, with the Coven's leader Hecate developing a strong hatred of the group.
As Earth approached the Void once more near the end of this phase, SolProtector's pilots discovered it was possible to pre-emptively destroy the next batch of Void being while they were being created. Succeeding at this would turn the entire war on its head; topple the Coven, destroy the next batch before it was completed, and then every year after that Project Sol could just field another team to play pest control. Plans were drafted, battles were fought, and SolProtector fought its way through the Void, destroying every Coven member in its way...
... But the Void would not be denied. As SolProtector battled Hecate one last time, it infused Hecate with as much Void energy as it could manage, raising her strength to unbelievable levels. Hecate was eventually defeated (or so it seemed), but she'd bought the Void the time it needed to safeguard the developing batch. SolProtector was forced to fall back, having won the battle but not the war.
Season 6: SolChampion (five-man, five-mech combiner w/"upgrade" add-on pack) vs. the Forsaken Netherrealm (folk legend themed, led by Queen Mab prior to Hecate's return to power)
SolProtector's failure to destroy the Forsaken Netherrealm before it was completed weighed heavily on the mind of its pilots. And being such amazing, upstanding people, they felt they couldn't leave the job half-done. Thus they became the only group to volunteer for a second tour of duty. SolProtector was traded in for the stronger SolChampion, a sibling machine superior in every way that the team quickly mastered, and the battles began anew against the Netherrealm's forces.
However, one of Queen Mab's lieutenants seemed different from the rest. A decrepit, old witch based off a Baba Yaga always seemed to have the best success against the Sol team, always had the best idea of what would catch them off guard. Mab and everyone else for that matter just thought that this witch was simply the best and brightest of the Netherrealm. Mab continually promoted and praised the witch for her ingenious schemes, including one wherein the might SolChampion was captured and corrupted, turned into a weapon of the Void to be used against Earth!
However, it was at this point of victory that the witch revealed her true identity and motives to Mab, and struck her down with ease. The witch was, in fact, Hecate herself! Having been given so much power by the Void, she'd been able to survive her final battle with SolProtector the previous year and masquerade as a member of the Netherrealm to recover her strength. To her, the Void had given her tremendous power, more than any Void being before. To simply disregard her in favor of a new villain was downright offensive, and she'd show the Void once and for all that she could get the job done. More powerful than ever, she was fully intent on using SolChampion to conquer the world for the Great Black Void!
However, Project Sol and its defenders would not give up so easily, and SolProtector was dusted off and used to battle once more. Weaker though it was, the machine was still piloted by five determined individuals who refused to see Hecate win after two years of battles against her. Though the odds were stacked against them, the SolProtector team succeeded by charging SolChampion with an immense amount of Sol energy, enough to purify it and bathe all the beings inside of it with Sol energy. Hecate and her copilots were eradicated, and the most bitter rivalry of the Sol/Void War was laid to rest
Season 7: SolBuster (four-man, four-mech combiner w/three situational add-on packs) vs. the Calamitous Shades (fear themed, led by Marquis Phobia)
Unsurprisingly, the SolProtector/Champion team still wanted to stay on for yet a third tour of duty. However, that was not meant to be, for the Void was growing annoyed at the team's repeated victories. Fortunately, with the final battles between Hecate and the team happening on Earth, the Void was free to take its sweet time with creating its next batch of villains in peace: the Calamitous Shades. And this group immediately threw Project Sol for a loop.
The Shades were more than just beings of the Void, but also those of fear. With powerful psionic abilities, they were able to incapacitate even the strongest of wills... even the pilots of SolProtector. Project Sol's greatest, most loyal and resolute members were hospitalized like they were nothing, SolProtector barely managing to take down the very weakest of Shades in exchange.
However, there was always hope. Project Sol quickly headhunted four gifted pilots who were confirmed to have some degree of psychic power of their own, and the four were quickly trained to use the newest machine in Project Sol's arsenal: SolBuster. With psi-amplifiers, the four could successfully resist the psychic assaults of the Shades and mount a proper defense and steadily beat back the forces of the Void.
However, after a point things seemed to get almost... too easy. One after another, the leaders of the Shades fell at an alarming rate. Death, Chiroptera, Isolation, Needle... it was almost as if the Shades wanted to lose. Even their leader, Marquis Phobia, was all too eager to engage in direct battle against SolBuster... only to be struck down after a vicious battle that pushed the team to the absolute limit. What was going on here?
It was then that the Marquis revealed she'd come to understand humanity's amazing capacity to grow beyond their fear and conquer it, growing in the process. Fear was a stepping stone for humanity's development and could be overcome eventually, just as the Shades had been. But if fear itself was ultimately a boon for humanity, what of the opposite?
And Phobia finally died of her injuries, a new monstrosity was unleashed: "Fearless". A ravenous and insane beast, it was stronger than any Void being ever encountered before. And it was Project Sol's fault that it could exist. The victories against the leaders of the Shades had been components in a lengthy ritual to summon one last Shade, the anti-Shade. Around the world, people began to grow irrational, acting without fear and disregarding any sense of safety or consequences. The world was descending into chaos, but SolBuster's team refused to give in, charging in to battle the seemingly unstoppable Fearless. It took the whole of their strength, all of their willpower, all the power of SolBuster and its psi-amplifiers, but before the chaos on Earth reached a critical point SolBuster succeeded in cutting down the monster with its sword. Its pilots were exhausted and their machine all but destroyed, but the Void was thwarted once more.
Season 8: SolBalmung (six-man, five-mech combiner w/"weapon" mode for the sixth) vs. the Eclipse Sentries (Zodiac/Constellation themed, led by Ptolomeioh)
The darkest chapter in the conflict between Project Sol and the Great Black Void. During the initial battles against the Eclipse Sentries, SolBalmung becomes cast into the darkest, deepest reaches of the Void, cut off from the rest of the world. With SolBalmung out of the way, the Sentries push out and begin their attempt at world conquest, meeting resistance but nevertheless making headway in less defended regions.
In the meantime, SolBalmung's team is forced to fight their way to freedom, battling through the Twelve Garrisons separating them from normal space. Without backup and without a means to recover or repair, they nevertheless press on, and eventually do escape... only to rediscover that the Earth is under siege by the Void.
From there the battles grow more and more frantic, with SolBalmung trying to aid humanity in fending off the armies of the Sentries, and never aware for a second that Ptolemeio's real goal is the "Grand Eclipse", a one-in-a-thousand year phenomena wherein the Earth is perfectly between the Sun and the Great Black Void. By creating a Solar Eclipse during this small window of time, the eclipse's shadow transforms into a gateway into the Great Black Void, allowing for all of humanity to be swallowed up by the Void at long last.
Even before that though, tragedy strikes during SolBalmung's last battle against Ptolemeioh's second-in-command, the mighty Antares. The pilots of SolBalmung, having been exposed to far and beyond the healthy amount of Void energy for humans due to their time inside of the Void, are overwhelmed by a shockwave of Void energy following their victory over Antares, fatally poisoning them. The team barely manages to return SolBalmung home before they pass away, with Ptolemeioh on the verge of the Grand Eclipse.
Knowing that there might not be a world for them unless someone makes a stand, various members of SolBalmung's support team rise up to the challenge and lead the machine into one last final battle against Ptolemeioh, fighting for humanity's sake. However, even as they are on the verge of killing Ptolemeioh it's meaningless... with the Grand Eclipse poised to occur, all it would require is but a thought by the leader of the Sentries to make his victory a reality.
... Unfortunately, it's then that he discovers that the pilots of SolBalmung, the ones he wished to lord his victory over... are dead. And the people who thoroughly kicked his ass are a rabble he has no knowledge of. The shock ultimately keeps him from finishing the Grand Eclipse long enough for the replacement team to finish Ptolemeioh off for good. In spite of coming a hair's breadth within defeat, Project Sol nevertheless saved humanity once again.
Season 9: SolHunter (seven-man, six-mech combiner w/three expansion pack upgrades) vs. the Legion of Umbra (Hammer Horror themed, led by Count Warlock)
In the wake of the final battles against the Eclipse Sentries, Project Sol was scrambling to prepare for the next inevitable phase of the war. Several of SolBalmung's substitute pilots volunteered to pilot the next machine, others being found to round out the new team. However, the new villains were ready to unleash hell on Earth, and Project Sol had to react quickly.
The battles were tough at first; the old and new teammembers not getting along very well and the Legion of Umbra proving to be a challenging group... but in time they managed to set aside their differences and score tremendous victories against the Legion one right after another. After so many difficult years, with teams being killed or incapacitated in one way or another, SolHunter's relatively smooth string of successes were a huge morale boost.
The routine failures of the Legion of Umbra also began to wear on its members, and many of them turned to other things to relieve stress. They interacted with human culture in non-hostile ways, experiencing human culture and enjoying it. Some began to despise the Great Black Void for forcing them to play the role of villains, and Count Warlock especially for being so devoted to it. In the final battles, the lesser-ranked members of the Legion refused to come to the Void's aid since at this point the Void was already working on its next batch and thus they were deemed failures. For this, Warlock exterminated every last one of them, though SolHunter's team saw to honor their fallen enemies, staying with them in their final moments and granting them dignity and respect in their final moments. From these battles Project Sol learned that not all Void beings were created equal, and redemption and coexistence could be made possible if not for the Void's malevolence.
Season 10: SolCrusader (seven-man, seven-mech combiner w/four expansion pack upgrades) vs. the Twilight Apostles (Urban legend themed, lead by Algoz)
The final iteration of the war between Project Sol and the Great Black Void, when all the stops were pulled out. On one side stood the mighty SolCrusader, the most powerful Sol machine that had ever been created. Opposing it stood the powerful Twilight Apostles, beings taking after the dark and forboding legends of the modern era. The Twilight Apostles were like nothing Project Sol had ever encountered before. The Great Black Void's creations had always been remarkably similar to humans, but the Apostles were far more alien, sometimes having minds not at all like a human's and only desiring destruction and spreading terror. Malevolence was there, yes, but even their train of thought and plans seemed alien.
The Apostles struck out relentlessly, targeting entire cities at once with terrifying machines, with Project Sol scrambling with their defense. Again and again, all around the world, SolCrusader rose to defend humanity from evil itself. As the battles grew more challenging, Project Sol raised Crusader's strength time and time again through even more add-ons. And that's when it happened... the absolute unthinkable.
The attacks had not been merely been for the sake of spreading worldwide terror, they had been to test Project Sol's reaction time to each attack. And with such a massive pool of data to work with, it was easy to deduce the location of Project Sol's base. As SolCrusader battled one of the Apostles leaders - The Inhabitant - in America, the vast reserves of the Apostle's forces rained down on Japan and attacked the base with all of their might. Just as all seemed lost, the Apostles were forced back by the sudden re-emergence of past Sol machines. Their pilots would not simply allow Project Sol to be destroyed so easily, and though damage was done, it wasn't enough to knock Project Sol or SolCrusader out of the war.
Not long afterwards, SolCrusader was prepared for one last attack on the Void and the beings inside. With the Project's base located and no way to relocate quickly, they had to launch a crippling counterattack lest the Twilight Apostles launch further attacks while SolCrusader was away. And once more, the machine of the Sun charged into the Void's deepest reaches to destroy evil, defeating the remaining Apostles one by one. Before long only their leader, the dread Algoz remained, and the Void was fast at work to create the next batch to battle with. It would be the Abyss Empire, which would carry with it an aquatic/sea life theme, and it would be led by the strongest of all its creations...
But it never came to that. As SolCrusader struck down Algoz, the Void was torn asunder. SolCrusader had been throwing around far, far more power than anyone, even the Void realized, and the long-thought invincible Void was destroyed even in the midst of creating its masterpiece.
... The war was abruptly over, and for everyone surprised by the spontaneousness of it, there was only one question left: "Well what do we do now?"
Season 1: SolFighter (two-man, single robot) vs. the Kingdom of Darkness (chess themed, led by Queen Maliasma)
The Great Black Void initially did not expect for much resistance from humanity. Its first creations, the Kingdom of Darkness were many, any one of them more than a match for countless conventional forces. However, as their first soldier, 7th of Bishop, attacked Japan, a powerful machine rose up to stop it. Powered by the anathema of Void beings, Sol energy, it fought back and killed 7th of Bishop with ease. Humanity had been ready for the Great Black Void, Project Sol had been ready. At their disposal was the might SolFighter, a machine piloted by two people working in synch, and able to easily dispose of the Kingdom's lesser riff-raff.
In spite of this, the early days of the war were marked by a lot of unusual craziness. Neither side was all that familiar with the other, and SolFighter and the Kingdom's forces typically adjusting and re-adjusting strategies all the while. The Kingdom also frequently fielded upwards of six machines at once in an attempt to best SolFighter. Project Sol also had to work to maintain as much secrecy about their actions as possible, lest the world realize that the Illuminati were the group's backers. Additionally, in between two of SolFighter's battles, one of its pilots ended up in a car accident, throwing the entire organization into chaos about what could be done. A substitute copilot was found before long and SolFighter was back in action, but it still had been a very close call.
Steadily, Project Sol and SolFighter made ground against the Kingdrom of Darkness, and roughly a year after the first battle, Project Sol was able to locate the Kingdom's secret base in outer space. SolFighter charged in to take the fight to the Kingdom and finish off the Void's schemes, and for a while things seemed peachy... but as it was finishing off the mighty Queen Maliasma, SolFighter was suddenly blindsided. More enemies? New members of the Kingdom?
No, explained one of them. Rather, they were members of the Void's second batch. Every year, as the Earth's orbit took it close to the Void, the Void was capable of creating an imitation of human society, another chance for it to use to take control of the planet. The Kingdom of Darkness was finished, yes, but the Shadow Alliance was just getting started.
Truly, all seemed lost, until suddenly another Sol machine joined the fray! Bigger, stronger, and able to overpower the Shadow Alliance members, at the helm were two more pilots, including the one that had previously been benched due to his injury! The Great Black Void wasn't the only one that had been planning ahead, and Project Sol was strapped in for the long haul...
Season 2: SolVanguard (two-man, two-mech combiner) vs. the Shadow Alliance (natural disaster themed, led by Lord Nova)
Having clashed during the final phases of the previous phase of the war, SolVanguard and the Shadow Alliance were no strangers to each other. Both sides were also starting to settle into a general feel as well, the Alliance having a little more consistent MO than the Kingdom of Darkness and Project Sol now more experienced with thwarting the forces of the Void.
The Shadow Alliance, befitting its natural disaster theme, was particularly prone to large-scale environmental catastrophes. Nearly all life of any note on Earth was a Sol being, so it all had to go, right? Naturally, SolVanguard rose to stop them at every turn, but all this fighting in such a way got very conspicuous, and some people got to thinking about just what the deal was with Project Sol...
Nevertheless, SolVanguard continued to save the day, beating back the most prominent members of the alliance, including Baron Flood, Count Wildfire, and even Grand Marshall Fallout. But just as the group was starting to grow complacent, that was when the Alliance pulled out all the stops. There were far greater catastrophes the Universe was capable of than simply what could happen to a single planet, and during a rather routine intervention, SolVanguard was suddenly blindsided by a new, far stronger enemy: Shogun Dairyusei. Just as all seemed lost, SolFighter returned to save the day, repaired, upgraded, and able to fight alongside its sibling machine. The original SolFighter team was reunited once more, even if they were in separate machines and had new partners now, and the two machines fought alongside each other for the remainder of the second phase, ultimately striking down Lord Nova together.
Season 3: SolShinobi & SolKunoichi (each have a single pilot) vs. the Ebon Corsairs (pirate themed, led by Admiral Blackheart)
Season 4: SolGladiator (three-man, three-mech combiner) vs. Midnight Army (tarot themed, led by Terra Complete)
Though SolShinobi and SolKunoichi proved the viability of solo-piloted machines, Project Sol still opted to return to the multi-man machines they'd made previously and would continue to field in later years. However, their latest creation, SolAres, was somewhat similar to the ninja machines in that each component could fight to an extent on its own and also separate at will to evade attacks. Three pilots were quickly found with sufficient aptitude for the machines, and the fourth phase of the war was on.
There were two glaring problems, though. First, although the pilots were capable with their own individual fighters, they had terrible teamwork. Second, the Midnight Army's attacks were seemingly random and had no common thread. With an enemy they couldn't get a handle on, and a team of pilots that Project Sol could not get to live up to their full potential, the war took a turn for the worst. Victories were still commonplace, but all too often the Army achieved whatever their goal had been, be it acquiring wealth, sending a city into absolute chaos, or destroying a space station. The army's greatest victory, however, was managing a fatal strike on members of the Illuminati, killing them and thus depriving Project Sol of its primary source of funding.
Season 5: SolProtector (five-man, five-mech combiner) vs. the Black Coven (occult themed, led by Hecate)
With the Sol/Void war entering its fifth year and with all the previous pilots taking their hard-fought and well-deserve leave from Project Sol, humanity needed a new group of defenders to stand up against the Void's next batch of evildoers! Heroes through and through to follow up on the past victories and kick serious ass, maybe even end the war for realsies!
And Project Sol got five amazing, upstanding, damn-near knightly men and women who were ready to do their part against the evils of the Great Black Void and the Black Coven. SolProctector's pilots went above and beyond being just the first, last, and only line of defense needed against the Coven, with the Coven's leader Hecate developing a strong hatred of the group.
As Earth approached the Void once more near the end of this phase, SolProtector's pilots discovered it was possible to pre-emptively destroy the next batch of Void being while they were being created. Succeeding at this would turn the entire war on its head; topple the Coven, destroy the next batch before it was completed, and then every year after that Project Sol could just field another team to play pest control. Plans were drafted, battles were fought, and SolProtector fought its way through the Void, destroying every Coven member in its way...
... But the Void would not be denied. As SolProtector battled Hecate one last time, it infused Hecate with as much Void energy as it could manage, raising her strength to unbelievable levels. Hecate was eventually defeated (or so it seemed), but she'd bought the Void the time it needed to safeguard the developing batch. SolProtector was forced to fall back, having won the battle but not the war.
Season 6: SolChampion (five-man, five-mech combiner w/"upgrade" add-on pack) vs. the Forsaken Netherrealm (folk legend themed, led by Queen Mab prior to Hecate's return to power)
SolProtector's failure to destroy the Forsaken Netherrealm before it was completed weighed heavily on the mind of its pilots. And being such amazing, upstanding people, they felt they couldn't leave the job half-done. Thus they became the only group to volunteer for a second tour of duty. SolProtector was traded in for the stronger SolChampion, a sibling machine superior in every way that the team quickly mastered, and the battles began anew against the Netherrealm's forces.
However, one of Queen Mab's lieutenants seemed different from the rest. A decrepit, old witch based off a Baba Yaga always seemed to have the best success against the Sol team, always had the best idea of what would catch them off guard. Mab and everyone else for that matter just thought that this witch was simply the best and brightest of the Netherrealm. Mab continually promoted and praised the witch for her ingenious schemes, including one wherein the might SolChampion was captured and corrupted, turned into a weapon of the Void to be used against Earth!
However, it was at this point of victory that the witch revealed her true identity and motives to Mab, and struck her down with ease. The witch was, in fact, Hecate herself! Having been given so much power by the Void, she'd been able to survive her final battle with SolProtector the previous year and masquerade as a member of the Netherrealm to recover her strength. To her, the Void had given her tremendous power, more than any Void being before. To simply disregard her in favor of a new villain was downright offensive, and she'd show the Void once and for all that she could get the job done. More powerful than ever, she was fully intent on using SolChampion to conquer the world for the Great Black Void!
However, Project Sol and its defenders would not give up so easily, and SolProtector was dusted off and used to battle once more. Weaker though it was, the machine was still piloted by five determined individuals who refused to see Hecate win after two years of battles against her. Though the odds were stacked against them, the SolProtector team succeeded by charging SolChampion with an immense amount of Sol energy, enough to purify it and bathe all the beings inside of it with Sol energy. Hecate and her copilots were eradicated, and the most bitter rivalry of the Sol/Void War was laid to rest
Season 7: SolBuster (four-man, four-mech combiner w/three situational add-on packs) vs. the Calamitous Shades (fear themed, led by Marquis Phobia)
Unsurprisingly, the SolProtector/Champion team still wanted to stay on for yet a third tour of duty. However, that was not meant to be, for the Void was growing annoyed at the team's repeated victories. Fortunately, with the final battles between Hecate and the team happening on Earth, the Void was free to take its sweet time with creating its next batch of villains in peace: the Calamitous Shades. And this group immediately threw Project Sol for a loop.
The Shades were more than just beings of the Void, but also those of fear. With powerful psionic abilities, they were able to incapacitate even the strongest of wills... even the pilots of SolProtector. Project Sol's greatest, most loyal and resolute members were hospitalized like they were nothing, SolProtector barely managing to take down the very weakest of Shades in exchange.
However, there was always hope. Project Sol quickly headhunted four gifted pilots who were confirmed to have some degree of psychic power of their own, and the four were quickly trained to use the newest machine in Project Sol's arsenal: SolBuster. With psi-amplifiers, the four could successfully resist the psychic assaults of the Shades and mount a proper defense and steadily beat back the forces of the Void.
However, after a point things seemed to get almost... too easy. One after another, the leaders of the Shades fell at an alarming rate. Death, Chiroptera, Isolation, Needle... it was almost as if the Shades wanted to lose. Even their leader, Marquis Phobia, was all too eager to engage in direct battle against SolBuster... only to be struck down after a vicious battle that pushed the team to the absolute limit. What was going on here?
It was then that the Marquis revealed she'd come to understand humanity's amazing capacity to grow beyond their fear and conquer it, growing in the process. Fear was a stepping stone for humanity's development and could be overcome eventually, just as the Shades had been. But if fear itself was ultimately a boon for humanity, what of the opposite?
And Phobia finally died of her injuries, a new monstrosity was unleashed: "Fearless". A ravenous and insane beast, it was stronger than any Void being ever encountered before. And it was Project Sol's fault that it could exist. The victories against the leaders of the Shades had been components in a lengthy ritual to summon one last Shade, the anti-Shade. Around the world, people began to grow irrational, acting without fear and disregarding any sense of safety or consequences. The world was descending into chaos, but SolBuster's team refused to give in, charging in to battle the seemingly unstoppable Fearless. It took the whole of their strength, all of their willpower, all the power of SolBuster and its psi-amplifiers, but before the chaos on Earth reached a critical point SolBuster succeeded in cutting down the monster with its sword. Its pilots were exhausted and their machine all but destroyed, but the Void was thwarted once more.
Season 8: SolBalmung (six-man, five-mech combiner w/"weapon" mode for the sixth) vs. the Eclipse Sentries (Zodiac/Constellation themed, led by Ptolomeioh)
The darkest chapter in the conflict between Project Sol and the Great Black Void. During the initial battles against the Eclipse Sentries, SolBalmung becomes cast into the darkest, deepest reaches of the Void, cut off from the rest of the world. With SolBalmung out of the way, the Sentries push out and begin their attempt at world conquest, meeting resistance but nevertheless making headway in less defended regions.
In the meantime, SolBalmung's team is forced to fight their way to freedom, battling through the Twelve Garrisons separating them from normal space. Without backup and without a means to recover or repair, they nevertheless press on, and eventually do escape... only to rediscover that the Earth is under siege by the Void.
From there the battles grow more and more frantic, with SolBalmung trying to aid humanity in fending off the armies of the Sentries, and never aware for a second that Ptolemeio's real goal is the "Grand Eclipse", a one-in-a-thousand year phenomena wherein the Earth is perfectly between the Sun and the Great Black Void. By creating a Solar Eclipse during this small window of time, the eclipse's shadow transforms into a gateway into the Great Black Void, allowing for all of humanity to be swallowed up by the Void at long last.
Even before that though, tragedy strikes during SolBalmung's last battle against Ptolemeioh's second-in-command, the mighty Antares. The pilots of SolBalmung, having been exposed to far and beyond the healthy amount of Void energy for humans due to their time inside of the Void, are overwhelmed by a shockwave of Void energy following their victory over Antares, fatally poisoning them. The team barely manages to return SolBalmung home before they pass away, with Ptolemeioh on the verge of the Grand Eclipse.
Knowing that there might not be a world for them unless someone makes a stand, various members of SolBalmung's support team rise up to the challenge and lead the machine into one last final battle against Ptolemeioh, fighting for humanity's sake. However, even as they are on the verge of killing Ptolemeioh it's meaningless... with the Grand Eclipse poised to occur, all it would require is but a thought by the leader of the Sentries to make his victory a reality.
... Unfortunately, it's then that he discovers that the pilots of SolBalmung, the ones he wished to lord his victory over... are dead. And the people who thoroughly kicked his ass are a rabble he has no knowledge of. The shock ultimately keeps him from finishing the Grand Eclipse long enough for the replacement team to finish Ptolemeioh off for good. In spite of coming a hair's breadth within defeat, Project Sol nevertheless saved humanity once again.
Season 9: SolHunter (seven-man, six-mech combiner w/three expansion pack upgrades) vs. the Legion of Umbra (Hammer Horror themed, led by Count Warlock)
In the wake of the final battles against the Eclipse Sentries, Project Sol was scrambling to prepare for the next inevitable phase of the war. Several of SolBalmung's substitute pilots volunteered to pilot the next machine, others being found to round out the new team. However, the new villains were ready to unleash hell on Earth, and Project Sol had to react quickly.
The battles were tough at first; the old and new teammembers not getting along very well and the Legion of Umbra proving to be a challenging group... but in time they managed to set aside their differences and score tremendous victories against the Legion one right after another. After so many difficult years, with teams being killed or incapacitated in one way or another, SolHunter's relatively smooth string of successes were a huge morale boost.
The routine failures of the Legion of Umbra also began to wear on its members, and many of them turned to other things to relieve stress. They interacted with human culture in non-hostile ways, experiencing human culture and enjoying it. Some began to despise the Great Black Void for forcing them to play the role of villains, and Count Warlock especially for being so devoted to it. In the final battles, the lesser-ranked members of the Legion refused to come to the Void's aid since at this point the Void was already working on its next batch and thus they were deemed failures. For this, Warlock exterminated every last one of them, though SolHunter's team saw to honor their fallen enemies, staying with them in their final moments and granting them dignity and respect in their final moments. From these battles Project Sol learned that not all Void beings were created equal, and redemption and coexistence could be made possible if not for the Void's malevolence.
Season 10: SolCrusader (seven-man, seven-mech combiner w/four expansion pack upgrades) vs. the Twilight Apostles (Urban legend themed, lead by Algoz)
The final iteration of the war between Project Sol and the Great Black Void, when all the stops were pulled out. On one side stood the mighty SolCrusader, the most powerful Sol machine that had ever been created. Opposing it stood the powerful Twilight Apostles, beings taking after the dark and forboding legends of the modern era. The Twilight Apostles were like nothing Project Sol had ever encountered before. The Great Black Void's creations had always been remarkably similar to humans, but the Apostles were far more alien, sometimes having minds not at all like a human's and only desiring destruction and spreading terror. Malevolence was there, yes, but even their train of thought and plans seemed alien.
The Apostles struck out relentlessly, targeting entire cities at once with terrifying machines, with Project Sol scrambling with their defense. Again and again, all around the world, SolCrusader rose to defend humanity from evil itself. As the battles grew more challenging, Project Sol raised Crusader's strength time and time again through even more add-ons. And that's when it happened... the absolute unthinkable.
The attacks had not been merely been for the sake of spreading worldwide terror, they had been to test Project Sol's reaction time to each attack. And with such a massive pool of data to work with, it was easy to deduce the location of Project Sol's base. As SolCrusader battled one of the Apostles leaders - The Inhabitant - in America, the vast reserves of the Apostle's forces rained down on Japan and attacked the base with all of their might. Just as all seemed lost, the Apostles were forced back by the sudden re-emergence of past Sol machines. Their pilots would not simply allow Project Sol to be destroyed so easily, and though damage was done, it wasn't enough to knock Project Sol or SolCrusader out of the war.
Not long afterwards, SolCrusader was prepared for one last attack on the Void and the beings inside. With the Project's base located and no way to relocate quickly, they had to launch a crippling counterattack lest the Twilight Apostles launch further attacks while SolCrusader was away. And once more, the machine of the Sun charged into the Void's deepest reaches to destroy evil, defeating the remaining Apostles one by one. Before long only their leader, the dread Algoz remained, and the Void was fast at work to create the next batch to battle with. It would be the Abyss Empire, which would carry with it an aquatic/sea life theme, and it would be led by the strongest of all its creations...
But it never came to that. As SolCrusader struck down Algoz, the Void was torn asunder. SolCrusader had been throwing around far, far more power than anyone, even the Void realized, and the long-thought invincible Void was destroyed even in the midst of creating its masterpiece.
... The war was abruptly over, and for everyone surprised by the spontaneousness of it, there was only one question left: "Well what do we do now?"
